16 April 2013 Gamer News

Disney has closed down LucasArts. Approximately one hundred and fifty people were laid off, while the promising Star Wars 1313 and Star Wars: First Assault games were cancelled. Disney has stated that those projects could potentially be licensed out to other studios, but according to various sources, this is unlikely to happen. The LucasArts brand will now shift from internal development and instead focus on licensing out projects to external developers.

Sega shuts down Sega studios Australia

SEGA has announced that their Australian studio will be closed down later this year. The studio was responsible for games including Medieval II: Total War, London 2012 game and Stormrise. Meanwhile, SEGA also announced that the Wii U version of Aliens Colonial Marines has been cancelled.

EA rated worst company in America again

Publisher Electronic Arts has earned the dubious honour of being voted the “Worst Company in America” for the second year in a row by consumer advocacy website “Consumerist”. EA’s chief operating officer Peter Moore admitted that the company had made mistakes such as poor pricing models and the bungled launch of SimCity. However he also defended the company, saying many of the votes had come from conservative organisations urging people to vote against EA due to their Lesbian Gay Bi and Transgender- Friendly policies, adding that if such policies make them the worst company then bring it on.

Microsoft creative director to everyone “dealwithit”

Microsoft’s creative director, Adam Orth caused quite a stir on twitter recently. Amid growing rumours that Microsoft’s new console will require an always online internet connection to work, Orth took to the social networking site to say he didn’t understand the drama around such a move, and that every device is now “always on”, followed by the hash tag “deal with it”. Microsoft then apologised for his “inappropriate” remarks.